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A look back at the 2011 fishing year

With this being my last column for 2011, I thought we'd take a look back at the season that was on the lakes.The first LeFlore County Bass Club tournament took place March 5 at Broken Bow Lake. Steve “Hard” Core and “Good Luck” Chuck Restine won first place with a haul of 18.81 pounds of bass — which included Steve big bass winner of 7.33 pounds which was good for $230 — which earned them $575 for the win. Jason “Wick” Wickware and Russ “Pop” Warner were second (14.12 pounds, $345), while Robbie “The Bruiser” Brassfield and Keith “Stone” Jones were third (9.22 pounds, $230).On March 20, the next stop on the LCBC Tour was on Lake Eufaula. Tony “The Tiger” Parker and Joey “Clint” Chitwood took home first place with 16.22 pounds for $650. Tom “Big Sexy” Hamm and Brian “Cuts Like a Knife” Adams were runners-up (12.73, $390) and Wade “FLW” Dalton and Josh “Love Me Sexy” Walls were third (11.58 pounds, $260). Kenny “Rogers” Richie got the big bass winner, a 6.2-pounder to pocket $260.The next stop was Lake Tenkiller on April 2. “Big” and “Li'l” Jeff Mahar claimed the top spot with 16.41 pounds to earn $650. “Uncle” Tom Neff and Paul “The Tank” Tankersly came in second (15.97 pounds, $390), while Dalton and Walls were third (13.23 pounds, $260). Keith “Pipes” Griffith got the big bass winner for the event, which weighed 4.74 pounds to earn $260.The next two stops were at the same place — Sardis Lake, and won each time by Dwayne “Mr. Sardis” Williams and Ivan “The Great” Williams. On the first event on April 17, they caught 13.43 pounds (including Dwayne's big bass winner of 7.73 pounds and $300) to win $750. Jim “Dandy” Yandell and “Slick” Rick Short came in runners-up (11.96 pounds, $375), and “Tiny” Tim O'Daniel and “King” David Kirkes took third place (8.82 pounds, $225).In the second Sardis event on May 15, the Williams duo hauled in a total of 22.33 pounds to win $615. Doug “Mister” Rodgers and “Saint” Nick Cox were second (16.47 pounds, $370), while “Smoking” Joe Phillips II and Chris “Shawun” Michaels came in third (12.82 pounds, $245). Again, Dwayne had the big bass winner, which weighed 11.09 pounds to earn him $245.The circuit's next stop was on Robert S. Kerr Reservoir on May 28. Core and Restine took home the top prize of $475 for hauling a top-weight total of 14.76 pounds of bass. “Ribeye” Randy Martin and Bucky “Buckshot” McGee were runners-up, just missing out on first place by a mere 0.58 of an ounce (14.18 pounds, $285). Brassfield and Jones were third (14.08 pounds, $190). Cox had the big bass winner, a 5.5-pounder to earn $190.Then, the final two regular-season stops on the tour came to Wister Lake. The first one was June 11, and won by Danny “The Doctor of” Love and Andy “Fat Albert” Nance with 14.2 pounds to earn $725. “Bad” Brad Hall and Robert “I Want to Go Fast” Wellman were second (13.48 pounds, $435), while Edwin “Evers” Miller and Hershel “Maniac” Miller came in third (13.47 pounds, $290 — including the big bass winner for Edwin of 4.44 pounds to earn $290).The final event of the 2011 circuit was on June 28 on Wister, which was captured by “The” Chad Ritter and John “Bo” Hopson with 15.55 pounds to pocket $710. Jeff “Jeffy” Hardin and Dennis “The Menace” Roper came in runners-up (13.41 pounds, $430), while Griffith and Gary “Egghead” Steelman were third (12.62 pounds, $285). Robert “Wide Open” Wellman got the big bass winner, a bass weighing 4.27 pounds to earn $285.The big one, the LeFlore County Bass Club's Classic Tournament, was Oct. 1-2 at Applegate Cove on Robert S. Kerr Reservoir. Wickware and Warner claimed the top spot with 26 pounds even to earn $3,370. Griffith and Steelman were second (25.67 pounds, $1,680), followed by Rodgers and Cox (24.04, $840), George and Clay Sherrill (22.79, $520), Phillips II and Michaels (22.58, $330), Chitwood and Parker (19.65, $200) and Core and Restine (19.46, $100). George Sherrill had the big bass winner on both days, 4.35 pounds on Day 1 and 4.82 pounds on Day 2 to earn a total of $1,060 — $530 for each one.As for the top five weights for the season, the Williams duo's 22.33-pound performance on Sardis Lake topped them all. Restine and Core were next with 18.81 pounds at Broken Bow Lake, followed by the Mahars (16.41 pounds) on Lake Tenkiller, Chitwood and Parker (16.22 pounds) on Lake Eufaula and Neff and Tankersly (15.97 pounds) also on Lake Tenkiller.Dwayne Williams had the biggest bass winning fish with his 11.09-pounder caught on Sardis Lake. Ritter had the second-best big bass winner (9.79 pounds) on Sardis Lake, while Williams' other big bass winner on Sardis Lake (7.73 pounds) was third. Core's 7.33-pounder hauled in on Broken Bow Lake was the fourth-best big bass winner, while rounding out the top five was Richie's 6.2-pounder caught on Lake Eufaula.The average number of boats per tournament in 2011 was 25, while the average winning weight total was 16.46 pounds. The average weight per big bass winner was 6.41 pounds, the average weight per fish caught was 2.49 pounds and the average number of fish weighed collectively per tournament was 64. The average number of limits caught per tournament this past season was seven.Here is the 2012 LeFlore County Bass Club Tournament Schedule:March 3 on Broken Bow Lake.March 18 on Lake Eufaula.April 14 on Lake Tenkiller.April 29 on Sardis Lake.May 5 on Wister Lake.May 20 on Sardis Lake.June 2 on Wister Lake.June 24 on Robert S. Kerr Reservoir.Other Tournaments of Interest in 2012:Jan. 7 — He-Man Tournament at Grasshopper Landing on Broken Bow Lake.Feb. 25 — Open Tournament on Broken Bow Lake.March 31 — Open Tournament on Wister Lake.April 28 — Open Tournament on Sardis Lake.July 14 — Open Tournament on Wister Lake.For those who would like to join the LeFlore County Bass Club and fish in this upcoming season's circuit, the first organizational meeting will take place at 7 p.m. Jan. 26, 2012, at LaHuerta's Mexican Restaurant. The cost to become a member is $30. For more information, call “The Jody Ray Fishing Hotline” at (918) 649-7387.